All About Labor Day | Why Do We Celebrate It)rebecca adams)8/30/2017<p>
Labor Day has become a three-day, end-of summer weekend filled with
backyard barbecues, http://www.argosy.edu/our-community/blog/all-about-labor-day

All About Labor Day | Why Do We Celebrate It

Labor Day has become a three-day, end-of summer weekend filled with
backyard barbecues, road trips, parties and parades.

But it’s actually a celebration honoring something more significant: the
contributions of the American worker. In fact, Labor Day is a direct result
of the labor movement’s push for better working conditions. During the
Industrial Revolution of the late 1800’s, the typical American worker put
in 12-hours a day, seven days a week. Children as young as five worked long
hours in the mines and mills, and unsafe working conditions were often the
rule rather than the exception.

Peter McGuire, an Irish-American cabinet maker, is considered the father of
the Labor Day holiday. At a union meeting in 1882, he advocated for “a
festive day in which a parade through the streets of the city would permit
public tribute to American Industry.” Four months later, 10,000 workers in
New York City took time off work—unpaid—to march from City Hall to Union
Square in what was to become the first of many Labor Day parades.

Twelve years later, in 1894, Labor Day became a legal holiday. By 1916,
Congress passed a law establishing an eight-hour work day and overtime pay
for interstate railroad workers.

Times have definitely changed. Union membership has dropped nearly 50% in
the past three decades, fewer than one in three American teenagers works a
summer job, and 14.6 million Americans are now self-employed.

So if you’re one of the 150 million people in the American work force,
remember Peter McGuire this fourth of September. If it weren’t for him,
you’d probably be working that day. ###